Fins employed in heat sinks that are configured to experience a fan-assisted air flow have typically been manufactured together with and as part of an assembly that includes a base for the heat sink. For example, fins employed in a two pass radial fin heat sink have typically been machined from the same blank or poured into the same mold as the base. By way of illustration, a single extruded solid round bar of aluminum may be machined with a lathe, a circular slitting saw, and the like, to form the fins and the base as an integral unit. The fins and base for the heat sink device may be configured to house a fan that may be configured to produce a dual air flow. Producing such fins as part of a single piece base and fin assembly may produce certain limitations in these fins.
An example conventional heat sink cooling device configured to experience a fan-assisted dual air flow is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,116, issued Jul. 28, 1998. In one example, the '116 patent describes a heat sink having a housing formed from cooling vanes and a base machined from a single piece of material. The cooling vanes are arranged so that air passes over them twice. The vanes are illustrated as being substantially uniform and substantially featureless. The vanes and base are manufactured into an integral two pass, radial fin heat sink.